Cream Sauce

Blend together butter and flour, and add to hot milk; keep stirring until the whole has boiled for at least one minute. Add seasonings to taste, at the beginning of cooking. The proportions for a thin, a medium, and a thick sauce are, respectively: One, two, and four tablespoonfuls of flour to one cup of milk. And an equal volume of butter, or one-third less than the flour, is called for.

Soft Gingerbread

To two beaten eggs in a mixing-bowl add two tablespoonfuls of butter, melted, three-eighths a cup of sour milk, and one cup of molasses. Beat all together; add two cups of flour, sifted with one-half a teaspoonful of salt and one teaspoonful of baking powder, and one tablespoonful of ginger. Lastly, add one teaspoonful of baking soda, dissolved in two teaspoonfuls of water. Bake in a sheet, and serve with whipped cream for a simple dessert.

Query No. 4246.—"Can you give me a recipe for Deep-Dish Apple Pie? It has a thick top covering, I cannot call it a crust, for it is something between a cake and a biscuit dough—not at all like pie crust."

Deep-Dish Apple Pie

This is the genuine English Apple Pie—they would call ours an apple tart. It is made in oval baking-dishes of thick yellow ware, about two and one-half or three inches deep, and with flat rims an inch in width. The first thing to do is to invert a teacup—preferably one without a handle—in the bottom of the dish, then core and pare sour, juicy apples—any number, from six to a dozen, depending on the size of the family and the dish—and divide them in eighths. Arrange these in alternate layers with sugar in the dish, with a generous sprinkling of whole cloves over each layer, and pile, layer on layer, until not another bit of apple can go in anywhere without toppling out. The apples are piled up as high again as the depth of the dish, or higher. Now lay over all a very rich biscuit dough, lightly rolled out to one-fourth inch in thickness. Decorate this with leaves, or other cut-out designs, and arrange them over the covering and moisten the under sides with water, to make them adhere during the baking. Place long strips of the dough over the brim of the pie-dish, and press with the bowl of a spoon in concentric designs. Bake in a moderate oven for an hour. Pieces of the crust are cut off for serving, and spoonfuls of the apple pulp are served with them on the plate, then, as soon as convenient the inverted cup is removed, and the rich liquid collected under it is spooned over each serving of crust and apples.

Query No. 4247.—"I wish very much to know the right temperature for Baking both layer and loaf, white, butter Cakes, also for chocolate Cake. Should the Baking begin with a cold or a warm oven? How long should each kind of cake bake?"

Temperature for Cake Baking

The usual time and temperature for baking layer cakes is 400 deg. Fah., for twenty minutes. Loaf cakes, made with butter, with or without chocolate, take a temperature of from 350 deg. to 375 deg, Fah. for from forty minutes to an hour. These temperatures are approximate, and are in accordance with the general rules for oven temperature, but this has to be adapted to the recipe. The more sugar used the lower should be the temperature, to avoid burning, and especially when molasses is used does the need to decrease temperature become imperative. The more butter used the higher should be the temperature, at least, until the cake is "set," to keep it from falling. Cakes with much butter need the greatest heat at first, and then a reduced temperature. So do all cakes of small size. Large cakes are better at a uniform temperature, not so high as the average. A different flavor is produced, especially in very rich cakes with a good many eggs, when put into a cool oven and baked with gradually increasing heat, from that developed by a high initial temperature and then a decreased heat. The quality of the flour and shortening also affect the temperature and time needed in baking. It is a good safe thing to follow the rules, and to temper them with judgment. When the cake is just firm in the center, and has shrunk from the sides of the pan, it is done, no matter what the temperature has been or how long it has baked. But you will always get your cake at this condition, more surely and safely, by following the rules, though you must be on the alert to use them with flexibility.